Shatamanam Bhavati Review

Shatamanam Bhavati Review, What’s Behind: Producer Dil Raju is familiar for making family entertainers and strikes gold in festival seasons. With a traditional title, he arrived before us this Sankranti starring Sharwanand, Anupama Parameshwaran, Prakash Raj, Jayasudha in leads. Despite there are two tall heroes in competition, let us see how far Dil Raju’s trick passed this time?

Shatamanam Bhavati Story: In Atreya Puram lives a humanitarian Raghava Raju (Prakash Raju) with wife Janakamma (Jayasudha), cousin Bangarraju (Naresh) and Bangarraju’s son Raju (Sharwanand). Problem with Janakamma is she wants to have good time with two sons, one daughter (Indraja) and grandchildren actually settled abroad. To fulfill her wish, Raghava Raju mails a serious matter to children. They rush down to India for celebrating Sankranti and also to settle the serious issue. As everyone begins to have a good time in village Raju falls in love with his foreign returned niece Nithya (Anupama). But there are hurdles for his love and also sensible problems in family.   

Shatamanam Bhavati Artists and Technicians: Coming to story, producer Dil Raju and writer, director Satish Vegesna have got a very thin line on hand inspired from movies like ‘Seetharamayya Gari Manavaralu’ or ‘SVSC.’ But what mattered most is they haven’t got enough conflicting elements or sufficient drama to drive the screenplay. Rather Vegesna went exploiting Konaseema visual beauty and village environment stitching scenes one after other with and without purpose. This made screenplay go predictable and narrative move on very regular lines devoid of new scenes or new threads.  Direction wise, Vegesna made the movie colorful, passing time on lighter mode which did not leave any strong impact in final. Final message offered to foreign or city settled sons, daughters and grandchildren to visit their parents in village also went weightless. Some of the trademark Dil Raju filmy dialogues touched hearts. Couple of Mickey J Meyer’s melodies (first and third songs) including the title song caught our attention. Sameer Reddy’s camera work with cool and soothing DI added grandeur to visuals. Madhu’s editing could have been better in reducing second half length. Production standards from Dil Raju are again brightful.

Onto artists, Sharwanand just struck to his simplicity at looks and good natured characterization of helping the others. At times, he never appeared like hero of the film. Anupama Parameshwaran is beautiful in Langa Voni and she too has nothing much to do. This is cakewalk for Prakash Raj and continued his SVSC track. Jayasudha too did the same. Indraja, Siddhu and others in family are just fine. Naresh’s fun as Kangarraju is ok. Hero’s friends’ batch Praveen and Bhadram were also ok. Rest of the artists like Tanikella and others were brief.    

Shatamanam Bhavati Advantages:      

First Half

Music

Camera Work

Lead Four Artists

Shatamanam Bhavati Drawbacks:

Predictable screenplay

Second Half

Regular Plot

Dragged Narration

Shatamanam Bhavati Rating Analysis: On any given terms, Telugu audiences aren’t showing the same excitement and enthusiasm in watching family entertainers with routine content. Main reason why Dil Raju succeeded till some time back with his wholesome family centric plots is due to wonderful drama and serious, strong central conflicts. Instead he followed the same old strategy for ‘Shatamanam Bhavati’ but missed in blending an enjoyable family drama by lifting many scenes and contexts from past hit films. Despite a typical village backdrop filled with lush green fields brings in an acceptable native setting, Raju and Satish haven’t capitalized it on substance.

First half goes off breezily in spite of no big central nucleus but a shell is beautifully built around. Prakash Raj, Jayasudha, Sharwanand in village filled with warmth relations did the trick. Entry of PR’s sons, daughter and grandchildren ushered in simple grandeur and completeness on screen. Romantic track between Sharwa and Anuapama started off cinematically yet ok. Towards interval, we aren’t exactly locked into a problem. However, first half leaves smiles on viewer faces. 

Second half, the consequential sub scenes and sub links like introducing Sithara or Tanikella Bharani becomes more preachy and boring. Hurried to add some value to a rather plain subject, Vegesna’s mistakes proved to be costly. Spoofs of super hit movies and star heroes in second half when Telecommunications and Cable TV connections are chopped off is one part dealt better. Pre climax for Sharwa, Anupama track is feeble. A climax of realization and more feel-goodness ends film on happy note. 

All in all, ‘Shatamanam Bhavati’ is a typical family entertainer with null novelty and stuffed with nostalgic elements. Though gives a déjà vu feeling of watching many scenes from old hit films, it passes the time if you go with family members. Sankranti season can be the only positive release timing factor to help movie at ticket counters. CJ goes with 2.75 stars and keeps Dil Raju brand intact for his clean, neat entertainment.

Shatamanam Bhavati Cinejosh Verdict: Typical Sankranti Film.

                                           Shatamanam Bhavati Cinejosh Rating: 2.75/5.0

                                                                                                 Reviewed by Srivaas